Posts by ThatOne

Once a $35 computer, the 2 GB Raspberry Pi 4 now costs $67.50

> Readers with long memories

With the current memory prices you'll have to be rich to afford a long memory...

Swedish celebs campaign for public rudeness ... to prevent cyber scams

Re: AI assisted?

> I'm hoping by answering no, they'll stop calling. But they may not be bright enough even for that.

Unfortunately the actual calling is done by a computer which randomly picks numbers out of a list (or creates them randomly?). Humans (or what passes as such in that profession) are only put in the loop when a potential victim has been hooked by the computer, so there is no way to discourage them, they will keep calling, again and again.

(Had a relative who had a terrible nuisance call problem, with dozens of repeat calls each day. The only thing which eventually worked was changing the telephone number.)

How Windows turned months of inactivity into a 7-hour update hostage situation

Re: You will get old waiting ---

> Windows update experience has gotten progressively worse with each version.

And that is when it works, which isn't guaranteed...

Re: 7 hours doesn't surprise me

It's not even a question of bloat: Fire up ProcessExplorer, and you'll discover that most of the time the CPU is 99% idle. Perhaps the update manager waiting for the right moment?

Re: Other famous lies

Don't know which version of Windows you have, but Win11 has an option to *not* to reboot during "working hours" (which you can set yourself). Of course it will update anyway, but that shouldn't be a problem (a gaming PC should have CPU cycles to spare) - I just won't reboot smack in the middle of something.

Re: re: Redmond is far from the only offender,

Not an OS, but Dell: Their software is a nightmare, and its updates take usually the better part of half an hour -- when they succeed (i.e. usually on the third attempt, meaning 1.5 hour lost to upgrade their stupid manager software (without which your laptop fans won't ever turn on, even when the room starts smelling of overheated PCB). They too have mastered the art of surrealistic progress reports in non-linear time.

Re: Innovate or die

^ This!!

A good computer GUI is a tool to quickly and efficiently execute commands it would take far too long to spell out (by text or even voice): One single click should amount to 10 words (not) written/spoken.

_{Disclaimer: I've still got two hands with 10 fingers (total, not each), so pushing on little plastic squares is no problem for me. YMMV of course.}

Turns out Brits would quite like their private messages to stay private

Re: Colour me impressed

> In which case let's not waste our time telling our politicians at every & any oppurtunity what we do & don't want.

That's a good example of the so-called "package-deal fallacy": There is no reason why not believing politicians should prevent us from telling them our expectations. Apples & oranges...

Re: Popularity contest?

> interviewing 0.003623188% of the target group and then claiming an accuracy of +/-2% is a bit of a stretch

Why? The accuracy is certainly about the interviewed, not about the rest of the population.

Nobody would claim "I can predict with 2% accuracy what people I've never spoken to would have answered", unless you claim to be a psychic mind reader...

> It means that 16% can't work this out for themselves.

Or they just don't care. "Why would [bad guys] be interested in me of all people?". It's a very common attitude, part of the vast family of the "those things only happen to others" delusion.

Re: Colour me impressed

> saying they'll put a stop to it

Preelectoral promises are never binding, as (wherever you're living) you might have noticed by now. And since privacy is against any government's interests (keeping tabs on the unruly masses), if somebody actually said it they would be brazenly lying in your face.

Nuisance-call blocker fined £190k for being a nuisance caller

Re: Do not call lists

> even though I never answered a caller ID number I didn't recognize, they still kept at it

Doesn't matter. Your number was in their database, and a computer randomly selected it every now and then, called it automatically, and would had handed the call to a human (probably) if you had answered. Since you didn't answer, the number was put back in the "to be called" pool.

It's like with spam and email addresses: Once a phone number is in the "potential prospects" database, you will never ever find peace. My cousin was in that situation too: Despite never answering, her phone rang non-stop in the early morning, midday and late afternoon, times spammers though somebody might be home. Like you, she only found peace after changing her number.

Re: So, about 25p per call

> the penalties are set are based upon fixed penalties

The penalties are set to numbers looking good in a headline. As I said earlier they won't be paid anyway, so at least they need to look good: Not too low, but still credible for the average reader (190k is a lot of money for average people, even if it's just pocket change for a millionaire or a big company).

Re: So, about 25p per call

> And that is a punishment and deterrent how?

It isn't a punishment or deterrent of course, it's just signalling that "we're doing something about it". It makes a nice headline and will justify the person in charge's claim of being the defender of the people.

Re: Born

It's up there with waiting in front of the bank/post office for little old ladies having just collected their pension. I'm sure they both feel very good about themselves, being smarter than the cattle and all that crap. They're just parasites, oversized, dressed tapeworms.

Re: 25p per call

> 25p per call

They won't pay, they will simply scuttle the company and create a new one (if they haven't already created it). It's the standard procedure, so it doesn't really matter if you fine them 1 penny or a trillion pounds, they won't pay either.

The only way to stop them is to fine the CEO (better, put him in jail and throw away the key).

HP has a solution to expensive AI tokens: Buy a more expensive PC

> looking at their laptops many do say AI

It's the new must-have marketing argument, so I doubt you'll find any PC openly admitting it's stunted and will destroy your life ^[1].

^[1] Not having AI condemns you to lower productivity, ergo poverty. Not to mention your friends will henceforth shun you, your spouse will leave you, and your kids will start taking hard drugs to forget what a failure you are.

_{Disclaimer: Above statement(s) is/are an example of "sarcasm", shouldn't be taken literally and don't reflect my personal opinion.}

Want to lead Whitehall's AI strategy? AI experience is not essential

Specific profile

It simply seems the guy they have created this job for hasn't any AI experience...

Nigel Farage wants to scrap 'suffocating' UK GDPR

> Why does everything his party says about business sound like their billionaire sponsors told them to say it?

Simply signalling they fully adhere to the "mutual back scratching" standard procedure ("We have your best interests at heart, so please give us more money"). *shrug*

Boffin claims Microsoft's supposed quantum leap does not compute due to 'basic Python errors'

Re: Shocked!

And you haven't even seen Windows for Quantum Computers!

_{Where the uncertainty principle is a feature, not a bug.}

Windows 11 turns five, leaving some important lessons for Microsoft

Re: XP good?

I do complain, but not to you specifically...

Re: XP good?

> Oh, the important stuff is still in Windows 11

But impossible to find for the uninitiated. Windows users used to make fun of the cryptic Linux commands one simply had to know, but nowadays Windows is about as user-friendly as start-of-the-century Linuxes.

_{Example? Due to ongoing problems to update to 24H1 and beyond I wanted to check my TPM settings. It took me hours of Internet search to eventually find the secret code "tpm.msc". Obvious you could say, but then again you clearly do this for a living, I don't... For me MSc is a "Master of Science"... :-D}

Re: there is nothing arbitray about the HW lrquirements

> You can activate Bitlocker without TPM.

Thanks, but actually I don't want it, because I'm also accessing that HD from Linux (which is my main driver, Windows is only there for firmware updates and a couple games). I just wonder about the reasons why things which should work (like Windows Update), actually stop doing so at some point.

House of cards, as I said. *shrug*

Re: XP good?

> I'm not convinced

Because you use a different metric. XP was excellent from an ease-of-use point of view. It had a simple logic (like, all settings are in "Settings", grouped in clear and logical categories), and it stuck to it, which means that even those rare few who don't work in IT for a living were able to master it after a month or two (elderly aunt for instance, historian by profession).

Now specs-wise Win11 might be better, but from the aforementioned ease-of-use point of view it is totally crap. I've been using Windowses from v.3 on (skipped Vista, 8 and 10), and yet I'm lost when I have to change some fairly basic setting in Win11, or understand why something isn't working as advertised. I don't care about the specs, I just need to get work done, and that was easier in XP.

_{(Didn't downvote you though.)}

Re: there is nothing arbitray about the HW lrquirements

Well, I have a similar problem: 12th Gen Intel Core i7-12700H, TPM 2, and this Dell laptop actually shipped with Win11 preinstalled, so one should assume there are no compatibility problems...

But it won't upgrade beyond Win11 23H2 or use Bitlocker, because "PCR7 binding is not supported" (yet Device Manager says "TPM 2.0 on Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System" is working properly...).

Go figure.

My point is, Windows is a house of cards.

Even the Secret Service won't use company-issued phones

Re: Trump phone?

What would be more fitting for the American secret services than a phone 150% made in the USA by honest, god-fearing, hardworking American workers?...

_{Disclaimer: Above statement(s) is/are an example of "sarcasm", shouldn't be taken literally and don't reflect my personal opinion.}

Re: Why?

> the police aren't allowed to connect their equipment to unsecured WiFi networks.

...and VPN technology is way too complicated and expensive, isn't it.

_{Disclaimer: Above statement(s) is/are an example of "sarcasm", shouldn't be taken literally and don't reflect my personal opinion.}

_{(Didn't downvote you.)}

NASA tests AI medic for astronauts too far from Earth to call a doctor

Re: WTF?

> the flight medical officer

Well, I guess the whole point is to precisely not have one of those on board (too expensive).

Because if you have a fully qualified doc on board you certainly don't also need a chatbot masquerading as one.

GitHub nukes 70+ Microsoft repos, breaks CI/CD pipelines, following suspected worm infections

Hunting AI developers

Did I misunderstand something, or do all those attacks mentioned target AI developers?

Does that mean that normal people can rest easy?

'Resistance is futile,' says Qualcomm CEO. AI agents will be become invisible, inescapable, follow you across devices

Re: I don't even give my real name at the take away when I order.

> I'm not sure what I would do if a card was deactivated while traveling.

Just have several cards, from different networks (AMEX, Visa, Mastercard), one is bound to work. That's what I do, especially since some networks are more or less accepted in some countries.

Re: "The phone, today, is at the center of your digital life"

Well, it didn't prevent them from releasing "Google Glass 2.0", AFAIK in collaboration with a well-known eyewear brand, and AFAIK some people have apparently rushed to buy them.

We now have branded glassholes, very chic...

Re: I don't even give my real name at the take away when I order.

> Don't forget, paying with cash doesn't leave an audit trail with your name on either.

That's why they try to make it disappear all over the world (some countries are further ahead than others), to be replaced by some electronic payment means which governments can trace ^[1], and ad slingers can use to know precisely what you usually spend your money on ^[2].

.

^[1] To prevent money laundering and tax evasion.

^[2] Even if at first they pinky promise they won't sell your information. But of course it won't last, as the Bible (almost) says: "The flesh is willing, but the spirit is weak."

Re: Resistance is our duty

> I guess resistance in this case just means finding and describing the security consequences of this ideas.

Unfortunately for most people security is a bad thing (i.e. something inconvenient, annoying, you need to bypass to "get work done").

I mean people should have heard by now that using "password1" (or the name of their offspring/pet) as a password is a bad idea. And yet. All those people won't mind the somewhat abstract issues you mentioned even if they understood them, they will only hear "AI will assist me" and "AI is cool, all the cool kids use it" (which obviously marketing will keep repeating, with pictures of desirable, young and visibly successful people glowing with barely contained bliss).

Re: Panopticon

> I have avoided anything with AI in it.

Still possible now, but it will become neigh impossible in a couple years as the old, "dumb" appliances reach their planned obsolescence and there are only AI-powered ones to be had.

Of course you can stop using any technical device and go live with the Amish, but are you willing to do so?

Oxford Uni student data pwned yet again - this time via career platform breach

Re: "digital confirmation of data destruction (shred logs)"

> My limited imagination is unable to grasp how that would work.

The bad guys showed some .txt file saying "the data has been shredded as promised".

It might sound a little skimpy, but if you can't trust criminals to be honest, who can you trust...

That an app 'Fits on a Floppy' is still a useful measure in 2026

Re: Old...

> I'm old enough to have used 8" floppies!

No need to be very old, you just have to work with equipment which isn't changed every couple years.

Re: Obviously too old

I do miss HD lights too... :-(

Troops’ phones gave away location data to foreign adversaries

> Clearly they learned nothing

They're not there to learn, but to teach lessons!

_{As the Bible says, "Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall."}

What? No updating your profile while on patrol? You're crazy!

_{Disclaimer: Above statement(s) is/are an example of "sarcasm", shouldn't be taken literally and don't reflect my personal opinion.}

Re: re: no actual policy that requires servicemembers to turn off geolocation capabilities

> If I switch GPS on on my phone it doesn't mean the towers I'm connected to get that information.

The problem isn't the towers, it's the "ad profile" feeding mechanism: To quote the article: "the Pentagon’s MDM disables the serving of personal ads to users, but doesn’t stop the transmission of device advertising IDs or other associated data".

So yes, if you switch on your GPS, the phone knows exactly where you are, and your ad profile gets updated. Subsequently said ad profile gets sold to whoever wants to pay for it, and they'll know very precisely where you have been at that time.

Blue Origin's New Glenn makes a crater-sized dent in Artemis plans

Re: I wonder...

Well, all rockets which have ever flown have been "test articles" in the beginning, haven't they.

NASA had their share of problems, but all in all they seem to have been a little more prudent than the current magnificent men in their new flying machines.

EU moderation watchdog says social media giants hate taking down hate speech

Re: So breaking the law is ok now?

> Why doesn't that apply to these companies?

Too big, too well-connected: They will whistle and Trump will start threatening to attack Europe...

Seriously now, it's the old problem of fighting fair against somebody who fights dirty: It's long, tedious and inefficient, but on the other hand if you start fighting dirty too you've lost: Law has to follow the rules of law, while criminals and powerful/rich entities can (quite literally) afford to ignore the rules which don't suit them.

Re: Platforms failed to provide disputed material :o

I understand you can't possibly let logic spoil an occasion to criticize the EU, but berating them for wanting to know more before deciding is definitely pushing the limits of bad faith...

_{(Didn't downvote you though.)}

Windows 11 update preview promises faster launches, puts Task Manager on NPU patrol

Clippy needs its own processing unit. Thus the name: Nonsense Processing Unit.

Error

> quality-of-life improvements for users brave enough to install it

This is assuming everything goes according to plan and your computer doesn't catch fire. Which, Microsoft being Microsoft, is quite a leap of faith, especially concerning updates. For the others, it's quality-of-life deterioration.

_{My own infestation of Windows 11 has decided that while it detects the TPM 2.0 chip on my 2022 laptop, sorry, PCR7 binding is not possible, so no Win11 24H1 update for me...}

Google'll grab your gigs if you don’t cough up your number

Re: Could be worse I guess

Any halfway serious mail server will have a safeguard which stops auto-replying after receiving a number of bounce-back replies, I know mine has. Else any exchange between two accounts with an auto-reply ("Currently on vacation, back the XX of month") would instantly turn into a DoS for both sides...

AI to infest eight in ten premium phones within two years

Re: My bullshit-o-meter just exploded

Well yes, in marketing-talk everything, even the most mundane things, is a (bigger than life) "experience".

Lab worker built a fake PC to nuke his lunch

Re: What am I missing?

> I think the microwave oven was posing as a CRT display,

That's indeed the only possible conclusion, but a standard microwave oven doesn't look anywhere like any of the CRT displays I've seen in the last 40 years at work (and I've seen several).

If only the facade (covered by the screenshot) was visible, you could as well disguise it as a filing cabinet or, even simpler, put a couple ring binders in front of it. *shrug*

Oh well.

Re: What am I missing?

Definitely hard to understand what happened. How did a screenshot solve the problem?

I got that they tried to conceal a microwave oven, but I've never seen a monitor shaped like a microwave oven, even back in cathode ray tube times. So what did they disguise the microwave oven as? Was the screenshot for?

Both Fedora and Ubuntu will get AI support – soon

Is it a headline? Uh no, it's a quote...

El Reg, this is not elegant... Why is the quotes' typeface so much bigger than the text's? Traditionally bigger fonts are used for headlines. Italics would be enough to make quotes stick out, a mix of typeface sizes inside the body of the article breaks visual homogeneity and looks simply bad... IMHO at least.

/rant